The biggest obstacle to the growth of the local food movement is how inconvenient it can be to feed a family. Farmers markets only run on certain days, so if you aren’t free that day, you’re out of luck, and it goes without saying that you’ll have to do a lot of your own cooking. Many families just don’t have the time. Cost is another issue, and the inconvenience factor has led many people to shy away from committing to a lifestyle of local, sustainable eating. Anyone who can find a way to overcome these particular problems will do wonders for making local food more accessible to everyone.

One company seems to have discovered the secret. Graze is a delivery company founded in April, 2010 by Julianna Doherty and Christy Colasurdo, when Doherty, who had moved her family to Vermont to make a lifestyle change, discovered how in-demand the fresh food of Vermont was among her friends in Boston and Fairfield County, CT. Why not set up a company to bring these delicious, old-fashioned foods to the people who wanted them directly?

And so, after finding the farmers, planning the delivery routes, and sorting out all the logistics, Graze (www.grazedelivered.com) was born to connect local artisanal food producers in Vermont with the people who know and love the food Vermont is famous for.

If you live in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Greater Boston and near Stratton & Okemo Mountains in Vermont, you’re in luck, because Graze will deliver artisanal, sustainable Vermont meats and dairy right to your doorstep, and you can order them whenever it is most convenient for you. They’ll even send you wholesome, prepared meals to save you the trouble of cooking. And they’ll do it all without burning a hole in your wallet.

Why Vermont in particular? Christy pointed out that Vermont has a very strong brand associated with it. When people think Vermont, they think fresh, pastoral, high-quality food. It’s a place that hasn’t sold out to the mainstream values of commercializing, where it is still possible to make food the old-fashioned way.

The Convenience Factor

I spoke with co-founder Christy about how Graze operates. First of all, she explained, Graze’s business model hinges largely on the convenience factor. “Most of our customers are busy parents,” people with kids, concerned about their kids’ nutrition but without the time or ability to coordinate their schedules with the farmers’ markets. Most farmers’ markets run during the week, and close at the end of the workday, making it very difficult for busy families or people who work to find the time to stop by as often as some would like.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) can solve this problem by providing a once-weekly pickup, but they have their drawbacks as well. Christy related an experience I am familiar with regarding CSAs: getting too much produce at the beginning of the season and feeling guilty because I can’t finish it all. Graze solves the time and the quantity problems by letting you order just what you need, at a time that is convenient to you. Basically, Christy and Julianna knew that the biggest obstacle to people adopting a local eating habit is convenience, so they focused their business model on dealing with that. “Convenience is absolutely key for us,” Christy says, explaining that this is a major factor in makes Graze valuable and unique.

Taking convenience a step further, Graze even offers chef-crafted meals. This takes the guesswork out of mealtime, both in terms of what to eat and how healthy it is for your family and the environment: “When you buy something from Graze, you just don’t worry about it [being healthy or sustainable]. We have high standards to ensure that everything we produce does not contain anything harmful, like antibiotics, hormones or pesticides.”

“My Very Good Friend, the Milkman…”

Whenever I speak with people about the local food movement, one of the first arguments I hear is that it is not cost-effective to manage effective distribution. One common solution has been delivery direct from the farm, either in the form of buying clubs or CSAs. If you have experience with buying clubs, you probably expect high prices. As a member of PastureRaised.net, I had gotten used to shelling out $100+ for a small shipment of some raw milk, pastured butter, eggs, and a grass-fed steak. Thus, getting such high-quality food was a rarity.

So how does Graze get fresh, sustainable produced food to your doorstep in a way that is affordable, every week?

The key, Christy explained, is not over-extending. Graze focuses on quality of service, not volume. They know their clients and their needs, and they refuse to grow so big so fast that they cannot guarantee the very highest level of service and consideration to their customers. “Our whole goal is to keep the personal connection,” Christy said, and “we want it to be that old-fashioned personal service.” Think the variety of a town market paired with the convenience and personal touch of the neighborhood milkman. By limiting their distribution, they can avoid the logistical costs of a spread out customer base, keeping their deliveries efficient and costs down.

When the alternative food movement was first getting underway, the emphasis was on simply meeting the new standards, rather than staying true to the spirit of organic, and so industrial producers simply starting growing organic food on a massive scale. This didn’t fix the problems of unsustainable monoculture and national distribution, since food was still being shipped across the country. If the industrial organic system was the best we could do, many people lost faith in the possibility that a local food system could become commercially viable without losing what made it desirable in the first place.

The problem, of course, was that companies were trying to apply the concepts of industrial capitalism—grow big, fast, and at any cost—to food. If you’ve read Joel Salatin or The Omnivore’s Dilemma, you know that model will not work for food. The business model that makes local food commercially viable centers around being sincerely concerned with the development of your community. It is a business model that keeps the best interests of the community at heart. Graze exemplifies that business model.

Christy emphasized that Graze actually prefers to keep things small. They would rather have a small cadre of a couple hundred dedicated, die-hard customers rather than a massive market of faceless consumers. In the same way that Graze avoids over-committing with too many customers, they also make a point of keeping their selection limited to just the best farmers and artisans they know. They aren’t trying to sell everything: “We don’t aspire to be Whole Foods. We’re about cherry picking the best artisanal producer in each category, to bring customers the best and freshest yogurts, cheeses, pasture raised beef, eggs and so on.”

Spread the Word

Looking to inspire others to start similar initiatives in their local foodscapes, I asked Christy if she had any advice for similar projects. She immediately hit on the logistical issues, and related that she had seen many similar projects try to bite off more than they could chew in terms of customer base or product variety. “Don’t try to be all things to all people.” Graze, for example, keeps their produce selection limited because of the difficulties of distributing produce fast enough to ensure it arrives fresh and unbruised, and they aren’t willing to compromise on those factors just so they can offer another product. If they can’t do it exceptionally well, they won’t do it at all. Christy suggested others looking to emulate Graze’s model do the same.

Stay small. In Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan points out that small farms can be more productive than large ones, but the farmers have to be dedicated, knowledgeable caretakers of their land. The way to make that food system work will be with lots of diversified, high-quality farms, not few monoculture industrial food producers. In the same way, the distribution system that brings that food to the consumer will be made up of a variety of different methods: farmers’ markets, CSAs, and farm-to-doorstep companies like Graze. And like the farms, these distributors will need to stay small and committed to personal connection in order to succeed with integrity. “We are small and responsive,” Christy explained. “We try to react quickly to positive feedback, negative feedback, or any suggestions.” They truly listen to their community of customers and if they want gluten-free or vegetarian options, Graze will add them.

The result? Graze is growing quickly, undeniably a good thing for the local food movement. “We are happy with fewer customers who are devoted and loyal. They have built our business for us,” Christy said, citing examples of customers scouting out new farms and food producers and recommending Graze to their friends.

This organic, community-centered growth seems particularly appropriate for a business that exemplifies the qualities of the local food movement, concerned not only with sustainability in food production, but in business practices as well. I believe that Graze has managed to fill in a big piece of the local food puzzle. Supplemented with an occasional trip to the farmers’ market or perhaps a small CSA share, Graze’s services will enable families to enjoy a local, healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Hopefully, their idea catches on around the country.

You don’t have to live in New England to sample some of Graze’s artisanal cheeses, handmade chocolates, maple syrups breakfast treats and other locally sourced goodies from small farms and producers. Graze does national delivery of its artisanal gift baskets, so anyone in the US can enjoy the delicious, fresh foods of Vermont. www.grazedelivered.com